This summer, the New York Times declared that the best art shows of the season were found in the Hudson Valley and Catskills at Upstate Art Weekend, the self-guided festival that now spans more than 150 artists, galleries, and institutions across the region. The year before, the internet buzzed about The Campus, a joint endeavor in which six New York City galleries transformed an abandoned high school in Claverack into an annual must-visit exhibition.
The region’s art scene has matured into one of the country’s creative epicenters, with high-profile projects earning national recognition and the tourist traffic to follow. But for the small, independent galleries that have long anchored the cultural landscape, success is still hard-won. “It’s sad to know that there are fewer galleries here on Warren Street now than when I started almost 15 years ago,” says Linden Scheff, co-director of Carrie Haddad Gallery. “It is a difficult business. You have to find a way to strike a balance, because at the end of the day, you’re running a for-profit business and you have to make money in order to stay open.”
The Balancing Act of Daily Gallery Operations
Running a gallery in the Hudson Valley is equal parts creative endeavor and small-business management. For many gallery owners and directors, maintaining consistent programming, staffing, and foot traffic means long hours and constant adjustment.
Jen Hicks opened Jane St. Art Center in Saugerties at the height of Covid, after a three-year renovation of the 19th-century former factory led by Kingston architect Scott Dutton. An artist herself, Hicks had to learn everything about running an art gallery on the fly. She operates the center, which shows traditional 2-D and 3-D artwork, large-scale installations, and performance art, with a small team, including two staff, plus one or two part-time assistants.
Over the years, Hicks has calibrated her programming to balance ambitious solo exhibitions with group shows and community programs, including drawing classes and partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club.
Digital tools have become an unavoidable part of daily operations. At Carrie Haddad Gallery, Scheff, who co-directs the gallery with Lena Petersen, recalls how rapidly the online marketplace changed the way the gallery did business, which had been based on in-person sales since Haddad opened the gallery (the first on Warren Street) in 1991. “Lena and I came into the business at a time that was ripe for change,” she says. “Between 2014 and 2017, there was a huge increase in our sales from now being able to sell internationally on Artsy and 1stDibs.”
At one point, online transactions accounted for about half of the gallery’s total revenue, a milestone that transformed its reach. “That really helped us grow in the last 10 years,” she says.
But even as the gallery benefited from digital reach, they noticed how impersonal that world could be. “You sell online and just get emailed a packing slip,” she says. “Sometimes, you’re not even allowed to know what their email is. It’s a very cold way of doing business.”
Cultivating Relationships with Artists
For many small Hudson Valley galleries, the most meaningful part of the work lies in nurturing artists rather than chasing sales. LABspace, co-directed by artists Ellen Letcher and Julie Torres, operates on that ethos. The Hillsdale gallery was originally founded by prominent gallerist Susan Jennings, who passed the project to Letcher and Torres after recognizing their shared vision.
LABspace has since grown into a vibrant, artist-run hub—a collaboration that draws on Torres and Letcher’s 30 years of combined experience cultivating artists. “When we met SJ, we bonded over ways to be artists and connect artists and show the work we love in a sustainable way,” says Torres. “That was like finding our people.”
Their curatorial model was inspired by early DIY artist-run galleries in Bushwick like Storefront and Pocket Utopia. “These are the people who made us realize that it was possible to run a space, even if all you had was your living room,” says Torres.
That ethos of doing a lot with a little has shaped LABspace since they took over operations in 2018. “We started out having one show a year that was open to every single artist on our email list,” Torres recalls. “We would have 400 artists, and they would all have a tiny work in the show. It really opened the community up to so many people getting to meet in one space.”
At Carrie Haddad Gallery, Scheff and Petersen view their roster of acclaimed, regionally based artists as long-term partners. “Some artists we’ve shown for 34 years since the gallery opened.” Petersen says.
The process of cultivating collectors, she adds, takes patience. “I have a woman I sold a painting to in 2015,” Scheff says. “She still comes to the gallery, and now she’s ready to buy another piece.” Sometimes, she says, it can take years for someone to come back and make a purchase.
Cutting Through the Art Market Noise
As the Hudson Valley’s creative ecosystem has flourished, standing out has become more difficult. The sheer abundance of galleries, residencies, and art events has started to oversaturate the cultural calendar, sometimes to the detriment of smaller galleries.
“There’s a lot of promotion and big names and big exciting events, and they do draw attention,” says Torres. “While it’s great to have all of that in the area, we have gotten a bit dwarfed by it.”
She also adds that social media, once a useful tool for connection, no longer provides the reach it once did. “Instagram has become harder to use,” she says. “Between reels and posting, it does continue to work, but Facebook is mostly useless at this point. It used to be a really great way to connect with artists and collectors.”
Scheff sees the same issue from Hudson’s more established vantage point. “Sometimes it can get a little exhausting and overwhelming to keep up with what other galleries are doing and the new work that’s out there,” she admits. “There’s the interest, the resources, the talent here, but it means we have to think less linearly and a little more creatively about how collaboration can invite more connectivity instead of us being one isolated spot on Warren Street.”
Hicks says she’s rethinking how much time and money to put into art fairs and festivals. “We did two years of art fairs,” she says. “We broke even, but it was an enormous amount of work.” With 2025’s rising tariffs on imported materials and shipping costs, she’s weighing whether the exposure is worth the strain. “The whole art fair world is shifting along with the galleries right now,” she says. “Some of the big art fairs didn’t even happen this year.”
Navigating Sales After the Pandemic Art-Buying Boom
Alongside the pandemic-driven rise in the region’s home sales came an art-buying surge, with homeowners eager to fill the empty walls of their newly spacious digs. But with tariffs, fears of a recession, and general economic instability, that wave of art-buying has slowed.
“It’s just sort of accepted as a truth that it’s harder for people these days to think about making that sort of financial commitment,” says Torres, noting that they have adjusted sales to ensure affordable pricing. “Having that opportunity for smaller, more affordable work has helped a lot. People love art. They want it in their lives, and they want to be able to take artwork home.”
At Carrie Haddad Gallery, Petersen and Scheff have also noticed that sales are beginning to mostly happen in person again. “People spend so much time in the digital world for work and entertainment that now we’re seeing people coming back into the gallery,” Scheff says. “The meaningful sales and continued relationships we have are coming from those connecting with us directly through the space, which is a bit of a relief.”
Across the region, that pendulum swing away from online purchases and toward relationship-based buying is more at home with the founding ethos of many small galleries. “The art that we show are pieces that we hope people will take and put in their home and love them,” says Hicks. “I don’t want to have someone buy art and stick it in their basement and use it as a tax write-off. That’s heartbreaking to me.”
For the Love of Art
Running a gallery is not for the faint of heart. The work is demanding, the margins slim, and the competition relentless. Yet for many, a love for art, for artists, and for the communities they’ve built continues to power them even through uncertain times.
“I push back when people say art is a luxury, because it’s not, it’s about humanity,” says Torres. “Spaces like ours are important as a place for artists to grow and connect, and for collectors to meet them at a place that’s accessible.”
Regardless of whether a sale ends up happening, most gallery owners are just happy to be building relationships with people in their community, or with those whose travels have brought them to the Hudson Valley.
“When somebody comes into the gallery, half of what happens is the conversation,” says Hicks. “That’s a big deal to me and my staff, that people come in and they feel welcome. To watch people have an experience, it makes it all worth it to me, really.”
